Portal:Developers

<translate> As a developer you are tasked with altering or extending the functionality of Joomla! or one of its extensions. You will be proficient in a range of programming languages, including PHP, but may be less familiar with such things as JavaScript or CSS. If you are new to Joomla! you will need information about the Joomla! Framework API and how to use it and will probably make extensive use of best practice example code.</translate>

A complete contents list of all pages of interest to developers can be found in the development category.

Reference Material

• Joomla Framework.
• API documentation automatically generated using phpDocumentor.

Articles and Tutorials

General

• Setting up your workstation for Joomla! development. A step-by-step guide to installing the Eclipse IDE on your local workstation for Joomla! development.
• Do not use die to debug
• How to debug your code
• Tutorial:Adapting Joomla 1.0 extensions to Joomla 1.5
• Version 1.6 Developer Notes

Components

• Developing a Model-View-Controller Component - Part 1
• Developing a Model-View-Controller Component - Part 2 - Adding a Model
• Developing a Model-View-Controller Component - Part 3 - Using the Database
• Developing a Model-View-Controller Component - Part 4 - Creating an Administrator Interface
• Component parameters
• Components:xml installfile. An example component XML installation file.
• How to use the JPane classes in a component
• How to use the editor in a component
• Supporting plugins in your component
• Tutorial:Adding Javascript moo.fx to your component WIP

Modules

• Tutorial:Creating a Hello World Module for Joomla_1.5
• How to create a module

Plugins

• Plugin Developer Overview
• Tutorial:Plugins
• How to create a Joomla! Plugin
• How to create a content plugin
• How to create a search plugin
• Supporting plugins in your component
• Tutorial:Creating an Authentication Plugin for Joomla 1.5
• Tutorial:Using plugins in your own extension

Templates

• Understanding Output Overrides
• Understanding Output Overrides in Joomla! 1.5
• Creating custom template parameter types
• How are templates executed?
• How to determine if the user is viewing the front page
• Tutorial:Template parameters

Security

• How to add CSRF anti-spoofing to forms
• Preventing SQL Injections

Database

• How to use the database classes in your script
• How to use the JTable class
• How to connect to an external database

Localisation

• Localization Advancements in Joomla! 1.5
• Adding multi-language support

Miscellaneous

• How to use the filesystem package
• How to use the editor in a component
• Adding AJAX to your component.
• How to send email from components
• How to use the JToolBar class in the frontend
• Routing
• Joomla Routes and SEF
• API Execution Order
• Accessing the current user object
• Adding JavaScript and CSS to the page
• Standard parameter types
• Constants used in the Joomla Framework.
• Form validation
• How to create a custom button
• How to create a stand-alone application using the Joomla! Framework
• How to use user state variables
• Retrieving data from GET and POST requests
• Tutorial:Using Caching to Speed Up Your Code
• Using caching to speed up your code
• Using JPagination in your component
• Using a custom image in the menu bar title
• Using the installer API to support package installation

Contributing to Joomla Development

The development of Joomla itself is carried out by the Development Working Group and third party developers.

• Participating in the community: a brief description of how people can get involved.
• Developer Email lists: a list of email lists for developers, including third party developers.
• Coding style and standards (To be reviewed).
• Patch submission guidelines.
• Filing bugs and issues.
• How to release a distribution tarball.

Contributing to Joomla Developer Documentation

The development of Joomla developer documentation is carried out primarily by the Documentation Working Group. There are currently two sub-projects of interest to developers:

• Joomla! 1.5 Template Tutorials Project
• API Reference Project

When creating a new page, ensure you place the following marker at the bottom of the page so it is included in the category list:

[[Category:Development]]

If you locate other articles you think are relevant to developers, please add this marker to those pages.

Suggested topics

This is a short list of articles that might be written to support developers. Please feel free to add further topic ideas.

• Creating a toolbar for your component.
• Adding configuration objects to modules and plugins.
• Storing data in the session between page loads.
• Using the caching system in your component.
• Creating a file uploader in your component.
• Suppressing output of extra HTML.
• Adding view layout configuration parameters.

  Explain how to create an XML file that will allow users to configure views.

• How to implement XML-RPC in a component.

  There are two ways to do this:

  • Implement it using an XML-RPC plugin or
  • Implement it in the component itself using raw views

• How to use the filter package.

  Describe how and when to use the Filter package and explain what needs to be filtered for various situations (for queries, for URLs, etc)

• How to use the registry package
• How to use JSimpleXML.

  How to load and store XML files and how to work with them

• How to add breadcrumbs
• How to create component feeds (RSS/ATOM)
• How to create PDF views
• How to generate paths for client side and server side
• How to access information from the request

  This focuses on using the JBrowser class to retrieve information about the features available in the user's browser.

• How to create an editor plugin
• What can be done with a user plugin
• How to work with parameters
• How to cloak email addresses